Greetings!

Just been playing with my little 6" Gelli plate and a few blank greetings cards. I also added matching borders to the envelopes. The cards were finished off with a bit of stamping and homemade washi tape. Lots of fun!

Practical Magic

Autumn has slipped into winter and I am slowly making adjustments to my different, solitary life. I say it's different but in truth I have always been a fairly solitary creature, although that was often by choice and not circumstance, as is the case now. I'm not sure there is any virtue in this except, perhaps, that without it I may never have become as interested in the natural world as I did from an early age. The drawback, as may be predicted of course, is that when you are solitary you cannot share the magic of a moment with anyone other than, possibly, your dog.

Until quite recently I used to wonder why my mother had drawers and drawers full of photographs that she took on her old box Brownie. Often mundane images recording days at the beach, flowers in the garden or even the pattern of the new wallpaper in the kitchen. But then it occurred to me that we shared certain traits. One was a very patchy linear memory making it difficult to recall the sequence of things as they happened and another was the desire to be able to look back, confident that we had actually done this or seen that at that particular moment and not merely imagined or dreamt it.

And so I find increasingly I am carrying my camera with me as an aide-memoir to record those things which I wish to recall.

Waxwings photo © Paul Gale

I did not have it yesterday however when I had a magical and completely unexpected encounter with 30 - 40 Waxwings in the nearby small park where Sam and I often walk. They are not winter visitors to this area usually, preferring the east coast and Scotland in general, yet here they were, trilling away and stripping the berries from the Rowan trees. There are blessings everywhere if we are able to see them. 

Patience, My Love, For Spring Will Surely Come

I haven't painted anything in a while. Often, ideas for work will come to me in that borderland between waking and sleep; unfortunately, the next day I frequently can't remember them, which is why I really should keep a notebook by the bed.

This watercolour started life with a bird who spoke to me, everything else followed from there. When do you get your best ideas? I'd love to know.

What To Do, What To Do?

Do you ever have those patches in life when you're just dying to do something but you don't know what it is? Does that even make any sense? Well anyway, that's how I've been feeling for the past week or so. I keep starting, or thinking about starting, things and then abandoning them. Restless, can't seem to find what it is that's calling me. I hope it hurries up and gets here!

In the meantime, here's a couple of new notebooks, both with prints of my original drawings.

The Uninvited Guest

As I was sitting at the computer the other day I became aware of a regular tapping sound coming from the kitchen. It would go on for a few seconds then stop, only to resume again. Eventually I decided to go and check it out and this is what I found. A very young blue tit was perched on the window frame pecking away at the glass as if he wanted to come in. Every so often he would stop pecking and flutter his wings, then go back to pecking again.

This went on for the best part of an hour until eventually he gave up and flew away. But the day after he was back again and this time he had a young friend with him. The friend wasn't so impressed with this routine. He watched the peck-flutter-repeat business for a few minutes then left, but our original visitor carried on for some time until I frightened him away unloading the dishwasher. What was he doing? We could only conclude he was reacting to the reflection of himself or the trees behind him but it gave me a great chance to get up close to a bird that is normally quite skittish and observe just how beautiful and subtle were its markings and colours. Small miracles.